Since we last met

I have mostly been

picking these - the box moth caterpillar

off the box hedges in our garden.

They have devastated them.

Stripped them to bare branches 

and then started gnawing on the branches

before abseiling off on silken threads to the next bush.

But we have made an impression

and after removing in excess of 5000

with tweezers,

new green leaves are sprouting.

No doubt these will feed the next generation of

caterpillars presently being laid by the caterpillars

that we didn't catch before they pupated.

But it wasn't all garden warfare.

We spent a week in the Malvern Hills,

staying at Perrycroft, a beautifully restored Voysey house 

with cottages for the workers holidaymakers.

We had free access to the main gardens

which were so perfect,

but we could not help shuddering at the thought of the havoc

that the box moth would  wreak on all the immaculate topiary

and we looked for telltale signs of browned leaves.

The hills were steep and numerous.

I think we yomped up all but one.

Going down was hard on the knees

but the views were worth it.

And then to my great surprise we learnt that the Hay Festival was on,

only an hour's drive away

and that there were still tickets to be had,

so we went to hear Kate Humble

and Monty Don and Derry Moore

talking about their latest books

Thinking on my Feet and Japanese Gardens respectively.

Summer is racing away,

but today has been like winter.

Dark by 3.30 and the heating is back on.

Welcome for gardeners and farmers

but very lowering to the spirit.

I made hot chocolate

and talked to my son in New York

about a trip to sunnier climes.

In the detail

We hotfooted it up to the Lake District for two days

in search of mizzle, lowering clouds and cool temperatures,

reliably on offer on previous occasions as I remembered.

Instead, we found a fair facsimile of the weather 

we've been having down South.

Normally so very welcome.

Fortunately we also found the holiday home of one man's dreams:

Blackwell overlooking Windermere,

an Arts & Crafts house,

designed by MH Baillie Scott

for Sir Edward Holt and his family.

Every detail was exquisitely crafted,

and preserved intact thanks to years used as a girl's school,

with boards put up to protect the original features.

Tiles by William de Morgan.

As much as I marvelled at the

skill and workmanship on display throughout a house

where no expense was spared

I was also bowled over by the precision

of the dry stone wall builders

seen everywhere on our walks.

Bare knuckled 2

Can it really be that time again?

Every fourth year, 

the council sends along a team to pollard 

the London Plane trees that line our road.

The first year they did it, I was appalled at the brutal result,

but plane trees recover quickly.

They are well suited to city life.

Me? Not so much these days.